Chapter 37

“We’ve never been up this way before, Daddy. Where are we going?” Little Eli asked.

“We’re going up the Arkansas to the rough country where the Pawnee and Osage Tribes join lands. We’ll camp on the Arkansas and we’ll have our own school for you boys out here.”

They had crossed the Arkansas River in a northwesterly direction, then followed along the west side of the river until mid-day. The boys were told to bring nothing but jerky in their grub bags, they were going to survive on what the land provided them. They came upon two large rattlesnakes lying on a flat rock in the late June sun. Eli killed one with a fast shot to his head. Moses killed the other as soon as he saw Eli pull his Colt and fire.

When they stopped to pick the snakes up, the boys thought they were just going to skin them out so they could carry the skins back to Cadalee and Adalee at the leather shop.

“You boys gather around, Moses and me are going to show you how to dress a rattlesnake and save the skin for tanning,” Eli told them.

“Always make sure the snake is dead before you pick him up. If his head is still in one piece, he can always twist back and bite your hand,” Moses told them as Pike, Isaac, and Caleb watched him closely.

Little Eli, Micah, Joe and Ezra were gathered around Eli as he put his foot on the head, then stretched the snake as he stood up.

“If the snake has a nice set of rattles, I always cut them off first and put them in my pouch. I’ve always collected the rattles from snakes I kill. Old folks in the tribes told of the big medicine the rattles have. I don’t know if that’s true or not, but I like having them, kind of like saving the horns of a big deer you kill.” Eli talked as he worked with the snake.

The six boys, Duncan and Joe never spoke. They watched intently as the men skinned the snakes and told them exactly how and why they did it this way.

“Always start with the point of your knife just under his skin with the blade out. Start right where you cut the rattles off and be careful not to let your knife run too deep as you slit the skin down his belly all the way to his head.” Eli explained as he slowly slit the skin open.

“Here, Ezra. Take my knife and run the point just under the skin like I was doing. Put your foot on his head, don’t worry about getting blood on your moccasin, you’ll all have blood on your clean buckskins before we get home.”

Ezra took Eli’s knife and gripped it with the point just under the skin and ran the point all the way down its belly to the bloody head. His cut was straight and his point was just beneath the skin as he finished what Eli had started.

“Eli, you and Micah hold the tail where the skin is cut away. You’ll get a little blood on your hands, but I expect you boys will get used to that in the coming years as you get older. Ezra, you hold the head down while Eli holds the tail end of the skin. Micah, you pull the meat of the snake out from the skin a ways.”

The boys did as Eli told them as they worked with the cold damp meat of the rattlesnake. Though the snake was dead its muscles still pulled and tightened, trying to coil and pull loose as they skinned it.

“He’s still alive!” Micah said as Little Eli and Ezra gripped him tighter.

“I’ve heard old folks say a snake never dies until sundown, but I figure when I kill him and cut his head off, his business end is dead enough to skin out. Just pull him straight and skin him out,” Eli told them.

“Now Eli, you take both hands and pull the skin down as Micah holds the meat. Pull the skin slow and steady, making sure you got it pulled loose on both sides of the cut, if you don’t, you’ll tear your skin and it won’t be good to make a belt or a hat band or a pouch.”

“Ezra, hold the big end down tight, they’ll be pulling hard as they come down the belly of the snake. Don’t let the meat of the snake get in the dirt either. We’re going to make a meal of this snake meat when we’re done...

“When you get close to the big end with your skinning, be real careful and make a cut around the head. If you kill a snake and his head’s not tore up, you can skin the head out too.”

Little Eli and Micah pulled the snake meat slowly from the skin as Ezra held the bloody head with both hands. When they had the snake skinned, Little Eli held the skin in his hands and Micah and Ezra held the skinned snake, they grinned at each other. They’d just skinned their first rattlesnake.

“Lay your snake meat on this rock and find a smooth stick to wrap both skins up on it. Then we’ll cut the snake up and wash the meat before we wrap it up to cook later. If we find another couple of snakes, we’ll really have us a fine mess for supper.”

“What does it taste like?” Pike asked as they stood near the rock and watched Moses and Eli cut up the two snakes.

“About like any other meat to me, but I’ve always liked the taste of it. I always make sure I got salt when we travel too. If you don’t use salt, all meat just tastes kinda plain to me,” Moses told them as he finished cutting up his snake.

“I never ate snake meat before until we all went out to the back end of ‘No Man’s Land’. Eli and Moses killed a couple of snakes and cooked them. I was a little bit afraid at first, but when they ate a piece and smacked their lips, I ate some too. I gotta tell you boys, snake meat is good cooked on a stick over an open fire,” Duncan told them.

“Joe, have you ever eaten rattlesnake meat?” Isaac asked when they were through and washing their hands and knives in the river water.

“No, but I reckon if your daddy, Moses, and Eli says it’s good, I’ll be right in there givin’ it a try when y’all do.”

“You boys get some jerky out of your grub bags, we’ll eat a bite as we make our way upriver,” Eli told them before they mounted.

The going was slower as they made their way along the river’s edge where the big rocks were closer and the trail was tight. They came upon a wide, sandy spot where there were only few rocks and stopped for the day with the sun still fairly high in the sky.

Today would be the first of many lessons for the boys, as they were taught how to think and react as a man.

“You boys get the saddles off your horses, water and feed them. We’ll hobble them out here in the open since there’s no grass close by,” Eli told them as they all dismounted.

They already knew how to tend to their horses, and led them to the river to drink when the men led their horses to drink. When they’d hobbled their horses, they fed them a portion of oats in their feedbags. With the horses taken care of ... school was about to start.

“You boys lay all your saddles in a row back here on this flat rock and get your handguns buckled on and tied down. Leave all your bullets in your saddlebags for now,” Eli told them as they walked back to where the saddles were.

When the boys had their gun belts buckled on, they saw Moses, Duncan, Eli, and Joe already had their new Winchesters leaning against the large flat rock where their saddles were.

“OK men, here’s your first lessons in gun handling. Listen to all of us as we tell you what and what not to do. What you learn about guns on this trip will keep you alive one day...” Duncan stepped up to talk to them first.

The six boys noticed he called them men, but they never said a word. They didn’t even look at one another and grin as they normally do when they share something special.

Eli and Moses put a box of fifty rifle cartridges next to each of the saddles on the flat rock.

“Show ‘em how to load ‘em, Moses,” Eli said as he tossed Moses one of the rifles.

Moses opened a box of cartridges and with the barrel of the rifle pointing to the sky, he slid each bullet into the magazine, lead first as he looked around at all of them. When he had it completely loaded, he held it with the barrel toward the sky and jacked the cartridges out on the rock.

“Did all of you see how he did that?” Eli asked.

“We did.” They all answered.

“Do you know why Moses had his barrel pointed to the sky?”

“No,” Pike answered for them.

“If you load your rifle with it pointed to the ground, you’ll have to look down to load. If you load with the barrel up, you can be looking around while you reload. If you’re in a gunfight with your rifles and have to reload, you’ll need to keep watch for whoever may be coming at you when you stop shooting.”

“Take your rifles and rest the butt on your hipbone and load them just like Moses did. It will hold eleven plus one. When you put eleven bullets in, don’t jack the lever just yet. We’ll get to that in a minute,” Eli told them.

With the men watching them closely, the boys loaded their rifles with eleven bullets.

“Now, carry your rifles in the crook of your right arm, barrel pointed up and let’s walk out here and mark some targets on these trees over here,” Eli told them as he and the other men carried their rifles too.

They showed the boys how to take their knives and cut the bark off the pine trees, making a big yellow target on seven of them.

The young boys were anxious as they walked back to where their saddles were lined up on the wide, flat rock. Without even being told, each of them stood behind the rock near their saddle.

“Duncan, you show them how to use their saddle as a rest for their gun so they can get a good shot. You men watch close, Duncan will put his first bullet in the center of that middle tree. From then on, he’ll put as many bullets in that same hole as he can,” Eli told them.

“You boys lean over this rock and put your elbow at the edge of your saddle. Look down the barrel and line up the front sight with that little notch in your rear sight. If you look close, it’ll look just like a little blade sittin’ there in that notch. When you’re shootin’ close like this, pull the little blade down as far as you can and still see it. Hold your rifle with one hand under the fore end like this and your hand gripped inside your lever, up close to the trigger guard. Don’t put your finger inside the trigger guard just yet.

“Now, I’m gonna take my thumb and back my hammer. I already have a bullet in my chamber, but you don’t. I want all of you to thumb that hammer back and aim that rifle just like I told you. When you get the sight just like you want it, squeeze the trigger slow, don’t jerk it or you’ll pull your gun off the target,” Duncan told them as he sighted down the barrel.

He squeezed his trigger when he heard the hammers fall on empty chambers. His rifle barked out loud and clear on the quiet river bank. Not a one of the boys even flinched ... they had watched the men shoot before and knew not to flinch when the gun fired.

Duncan hit the bare spot on the pine tree dead center.

“Jack a cartridge in your chamber, your hammer will be back when you do, so be careful. Your gun will be ready to kill whatever is in front of it. Sight down the barrel just like Duncan showed you and fire when you have the sight right in the center of your target,” Eli told them.

The marshals stood behind them as the boys knelt and lined up with their targets. The sound of six rifle levers being jacked at the same time was the only sound to be heard. They were already lining their sights up as the men watched.

“Fire when ready, men,” Moses told them.

None of the six hit dead center, but they did hit their targets.

“Fire again, this time use that first mark and aim for the center of your target. You’ll not be riflemen until you can hit dead center each time you shoot,” Eli told them.

When they had emptied their rifles, there was a big black mark in the center of the six trees where the ten lead bullets had struck. As the last shots were fired, all six of them laid their rifles across the saddles and turned to see the four marshals smiling at them.

“You men did better than I did when I took my first shots with a rifle. You’re about as good as Sissy and me already,” Joe bragged on them, making the boys proud.

“I got something I want to say to all of you. Just remember, your guns will kill people too. If any of you ever point a gun at one of your brothers, whether you mean to or not, you could kill one of your brothers or even one of your sisters in the blink of your eye. When I was scouting for the cavalry, I saw two brothers fighting side by side and one turned to load his rifle. He hit the trigger with his finger and killed his brother ... shot him in his face. When he saw what he did, he put his barrel under his own chin and killed himself,” Moses told them as they stood looking at each other.

“That’s a good point to tell them, Moses,” Eli spoke.

“A gun was made for killing. A gun has no thoughts and no mind about what it’s doing. You always control your own gun. You can use a gun to feed your family, a gun will protect you from harm, you can kill your enemy, and you can just as easy kill one of your own friends or family if you’re careless. We’re going to teach you how to shoot, when to shoot and know when it’s safe to shoot. Just remember, it’ll be up to you to know where you’re shootin. I think I’d be like that soldier Moses spoke of if I killed one of you. I know all of you would too,” Eli told them.

They spent the rest of the day shooting at different targets with their rifles. Joe wasn’t able to use his arm well enough to shoot a rifle, so he helped school the boys as the other marshals taught them how to shoot long distance at a target. Eli even showed them how to shoot at a pine cone when Moses threw it into the air.

“Eli, show ‘em how to do that with your Colt too,” Duncan said and grinned at him. Eli didn’t like showing off his gun skills, but he wanted the boys to know what a man could do with a gun if he set his mind to it.

Moses tossed a pine cone into the air and Eli pulled his Colt and blasted it to pieces in the blink of an eye. Joe and Duncan each threw one at the same time and Eli shot them both as they flew apart.

“One more time, Eli,” Joe said as Eli rolled his cylinder and reloaded.

Joe, Moses and Duncan each picked up two pine cones. With one in each hand, the three marshals flung all six of them high into the air at the same time.

At the top of the arc, Eli drew his Colt, fanning the hammer six times as all the pine cones burst into small pieces and fell back to the ground.

“Woooooweeee, Daddy,” Little Eli said as his daddy rolled the cylinder and dropped the spent brass on the ground.

Eli sat on a rock, looking down at his Colt pistol as he started pulling cartridges out of his gunbelt one at a time, reloading his gun. He didn’t look up at the boys, as he began talking to them.

“My pa taught me about guns, about as soon as I could walk, or soon after it seemed like. When I was twelve years old, my ma was killed and your Aunt Rose was kidnapped and raped ... she was just thirteen that year. Pa was off fighting with the Missouri State Guard and he put me in charge while he was gone. I went fishing one morning ‘cause we was about out of food, and while I was down on the river, I heard shots off in the distance. I knew bad things was happening back home and ran as hard as I could back to the house. My ma was raped and butchered in our yard. My sister, Rose was gone. I got a shovel and buried my ma by myself out on the hill where she always sat and sang her songs of the Old People.